I'm in Montreal now! Specifically in my hotel room connected to sweet sweet free Internet. Having a laptop is a good thing.

I'm really impressed with my whole travel experience this evening. I took Porter Airlines from the Toronto island airport. In total it took three hours to get from my apartment in Toronto to my hotel room in Montreal. That's pretty damn good I think. Plus it was definitely the best flying experience I've ever had. I went to Union station and got on the free shuttle to the ferry dock. At the ferry dock there was a special Porter lounge where I was able to check in while I waited for the ferry. After the 90 second long ferry ride I was directly connected to the terminal where I was able to sit and relax for half an hour in comfy chairs with cookies and a cup of tea.

The flight wasn't very full so I had my seat to myself and was able to read a bunch of my book while eating yummy fancy "root vegetable" chips (potato, carrot, taro, turnip, etc) and drinking free drinks. The plane was a fancy new plane that is super quiet and efficient and so on. Apparently it's more efficient and environmentally friendly per-passenger to fly this plane to Montreal than to take a bus or car. So that's fun too (as an aside, the train is still the efficiency winner for mass transit). The pilot talked to me a bit before I left and he mentioned that it's also really powerful and fun to fly. All the staff seemed really friendly and happy so it was a really good experience.

I left the plane and walked to pick up my checked bag, and as I arrived at baggage claim my bag popped out and I was able to pick it up and keep going without even stopping. I grabbed a taxi and although the guy drove like a crazy-person I arrived here in one piece and in amazing time.

I just checked and standard fare to Montreal by train is equal to standard fare by Porter (about $250). So if I'm ever going to Montreal by my own money I would seriously consider Porter just for how easy it all was. I really didn't feel like travelling tonight, so I'm glad it was so easy.